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Its a lock on 2nd place for Clackamas boys

They improve to 7-2 in the Three Rivers League with wins over Oregon City and Lakeridge

The second-in-the-state ranked Clackamas Cavaliers put two more games in win column last week, upping their season record to 19-4 and their league record to 7-2 with victories over Oregon City (62-43) and Lakeridge (72-55).

The game with Oregon City was a lot closer than the score might indicate. Clackamas led most of the way, but it was still a 4-point game, with Clackamas up 34-30, heading into the fourth quarter.

The play of Clackamas junior Markus Golder early in the fourth quarter helped break the game open.

Golder scored two lay-ups, had a put-back and hit two free throws in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, His rebound bucket at the four-minute mark made it 42-32 Clackamas, and the game was in hand, as the Cavaliers made their free throws at crunch time. Clackamas was 16-of-19 from the line in the fourth quarter, while the Pioneers fired blanks, hitting only 4-of-23 field goal attempts in the final period  with many of the misses on shots taken from 3-point land.

Asked if the Cavaliers might have overlooked Oregon City, Clackamas senior post Keaton Bankofier said, No. We just werent executing very well [in the first three quarters]. Once we got out on the fast break and started knocking shots down, it opened things up.

Oregon Citys a good ball club, Bankofier added.

Bankofier agreed that Golder played a pivotal role in the Cavalier victory.

[Heading into the fourth quarter] we just told him to keep attacking the basket, Bankofier said. Hes one of our best finishers.

Golder scored nine of his game-high 20 points in the final period.

Raekwon Mingledoff was money at the charity stripe for the Cavaliers down the stretch, hitting 8-of-8 free throws. Mingledoff scored 10 points in the game, all of them in the fourth quarter.

Led by Golder, Mingledoff and Bankofier (9 points), nine different Clackamas players contributed points to the winning tally.

Oregon City was led by Brad Martin (14 points), Chris Mengis (11 points) and Briggs Young (10 points).

The Pioneers played without starting point guard Trevon Bradford, who will miss the remainder of the season because of an injury to an elbow.

Like the game with Oregon City, Clackamas 72-55 win over Lakeridge on Friday was a tight game until the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers were nursing a 51-50 lead heading into the final period.

Heading into their Tuesday (Feb. 25) league final with Canby (8-13, 1-8), the Cavaliers (19-4, 7-2) had locked up second place in the Three Rivers League. They were two games back of top-ranked and defending state champion West Linn (19-4, 9-0) and three games up on third-place Lakeridge (16-7, 4-5).

With their high ranking in the OSAA RPI, the Cavaliers will host a first-round state playoff game next Wednesday (March 5).